This collection comprises photographs by Julius Shulman and Jürgen Nogai of the expanded and renovated Getty Villa, taken
during May and June, 2006. Forty-five (45) black and white and sixty-six (66) color 8 x 10 inch photographic prints constitute
the main body of the collection. Duplicates of 29 of the color prints and the original 4 x 5 inch negatives for these prints
are also included.

Background

The Getty Villa operates as a museum and educational center dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece,
Rome, and Etruria. The Getty Villa was designed to house J. Paul Getty's art collection when it outgrew his Ranch House in
Pacific Palisades, California, which had served as a private museum since 1954. After considering various options for expanding
the Ranch House, Getty decided in the fall of 1968 to build a new museum on the same property, in the form of a first-century
Roman country house, based primarily on the plans of the ancient Villa dei Papiri just outside of Herculaneum. The archaeologist
Norman Neuerburg, who had studied the ruins of Herculaneum and was an authority on Roman domestic architecture, was retained
as a consultant for the project. The Santa Monica architectural firm Langdon & Wilson was hired to design the Villa, and British
architect Stephen Garrett, who had served as Getty’s consultant in the remodeling of a Getty home in Posillipo, Italy, was
retained as overseer of the construction. Landscape architect Emmet Wemple designed the gardens, Garth Benton worked on the
murals, and Bruce Ptolomy worked on the fountains. Construction began on December 21, 1970, and the new museum opened to the
public on January 16, 1974, receiving negative and positive reviews.Photographer Julius Shulman was renowned for his striking images of modern architecture. He was born October 10, 1910 in Brooklyn,
New York, and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1920. Throughout the 1930s, Shulman photographed historical locations in
Los Angeles, and his real break occurred in 1936, when he photographed architect Richard J. Neutra’s Kun House (Los Angeles,
Calif.). He was subsequently asked by Neutra to photograph some of his other projects. Through his relationship with Neutra
he was able to secure other architectural photography commissions, documenting the work of architects as R.M. Schindler, Raphael
Soriano, Gregory Ain, J.R. Davidson, John Lautner and Pierre Koenig as well as many others. While he also shot product and
furniture photographs for designers, he is most acclaimed for his iconic images of mid-century modern buildings including
the Case Study houses of Southern California. Shulman’s photographs have been widely published, and he has produced several
monographs about his work, including:
Photography of Architecture and Design: Photographing Buildings, Interiors, and the Visual Arts (1977),
Architecture and its Photography (1998),
Photographing Architecture and Interiors (2000), and
Malibu: A Century of Living by the Sea (2005).

Extent

0.25 linear feet
(1 box)

Restrictions

Contact
Library Rights and Reproductions.

Availability

The records described in accession 2007.IA.14 are available for use by qualified researchers.